Teachers across California have been preparing for potential strikes as state funding for schools struggles to keep up with costs.
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About 1 in 10 K-12 students in the U.S. attend a California public school, and those schools are seeing a lot of turmoil this year. San Francisco educators went on strike in February. Teachers in Oakland and San Diego narrowly avoided a strike themselves. And their colleagues in several other districts are also weighing work stoppages. Farida Jhabvala Romero of member station KQED reports.
WAYNE ABRAHAMS: See you tomorrow.
FARIDA JHABVALA ROMERO, BYLINE: Second-grade teacher Wayne Abrahams is seeing students off at the end of the school day at Redwood Heights Elementary in Oakland. For years, he’s been concerned about teacher pay.
ABRAHAMS: Teachers are not getting an equitable pay compared to other districts. I think people, you know, might get disillusioned and find work elsewhere, and so we very often lose people that Oakland has trained.
JHABVALA ROMERO: Teachers in Oakland Unified landed a deal for better wages after they threatened to strike in February. District leaders said the tentative agreement reflects their respect for educators and commitment to student outcomes, even as they navigate a budget deficit. About 90 miles northeast, teachers in Natomas Unified School District are also preparing for a potential strike. Special education teacher Nico Vaccaro says the cost of health care and other benefits has led to a lot of turnover.
NICO VACCARO: It’s upsetting for parents to have to see so many teachers leave year after year because they can’t afford the benefits, right? The pay is not enough.
JHABVALA ROMERO: So how did we get here? California limits how much local governments can charge for property taxes. That means the majority of school funding comes from the state. But with declining enrollment in most districts, state funding, which is tied to student attendance, isn’t keeping up with costs.
IWUNZE UGO: This is one of the challenges with education. It is very expensive.
JHABVALA ROMERO: Iwunze Ugo is an education researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California.
UGO: So you have this kind of ironic dual problem where we’re spending a lot of money, but then also it’s not enough.
JHABVALA ROMERO: California’s one of the most expensive states to live in, and school district officials here are in a tight spot. They have little control over how much state money they get and are wary of committing to higher wages and benefits without knowing how they’ll pay for it.
TROY FLINT: We think teachers should get paid more. We think that class sizes should be smaller.
JHABVALA ROMERO: Troy Flint is a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, which represents school district leaders.
FLINT: But we can’t just live a dream life and promise all these requirements that mortgage the future and put us in a situation where we won’t be able to provide for students a few years down the line.
JHABVALA ROMERO: Superintendent Robyn Castillo, of the Natomas Unified School District where Vaccaro works, says she’s hoping for a deal that’s fair and fiscally responsible.
ROBYN CASTILLO: It just comes down to the reality of doing simple math. When ongoing commitments exceed ongoing revenues, the districts are forced to make reductions.
JHABVALA ROMERO: One more reason all these labor tensions are happening now, the California Teachers Association – the union representing educators statewide – worked with members to ensure several labor contracts expired around the same time. The hope, according to union President David Goldberg, is to get the attention of state lawmakers and the governor.
DAVID GOLDBERG: There’s an interesting dynamic in California where we have both locally negotiated contracts, but we also have a dire need for state funding. So it’s kind of really to put the focus on both at the same time, which is very important.
JHABVALA ROMERO: He says the coordinated strategy pumps up the volume on the need to resolve common teacher concerns as negotiations over state education funding continue.
For NPR News, I’m Farida Jhabvala Romero in Oakland, California.
(SOUNDBITE OF KENDRICK LAMAR SONG, “SING ABOUT ME, I’M DYING OF THIRST”)
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Farida Romero 2026-03-06 22:26:06
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